Adil Najam
In a rather shocking move, the President, Gen. Perzez Musharraf just dismissed the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for alleged “misuse of authority.”
According to a breaking news segment at The News:
The president has submitted a case against Chaudhry to the Supreme Judicial Council. Musharraf had received “numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan,” and Chaudhry had been unable to give a satisfactory explanation, sources said. The report did not specify what he was accused of. The council is a panel of top Pakistani judges that adjudicates cases brought against serving judges and will decide whether the charges against Chaudhry merit his formal dismissal and whether he should be prosecuted.
Basing their story on the Associated Press of Pakistan, the BBC reports further:
Mr Chaudhry was summoned to explain himself to Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. His case was then referred to the Supreme Judicial Council which will decide if Mr Chaudhry should be prosecuted.
The move has shocked many, but signs of its coming can now be identified in hindsight. Mr. Chaudhry had served as the Chief Justice since 2005 and, on occasion, had taken steps that had irked the power structure in Pakistan.
According to a Khaleej Times report, for example:
Last June, the Supreme Court rejected a government move to sell 75 percent of state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills to a Saudi-Russian-Pakistani consortium for 21.7 billion rupees ($362 million). Mill workers claimed it was greatly undervalued. Also, Chaudhry has heard a landmark case brought by relatives of dozens of people believed taken into secret custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies. The chief justice has pressed the government to provide information on the detainees whereabouts. Talat Masood, a political analyst, said the removal of Chaudhry demonstrated the power of the military and suggested that Musharraf’s government wanted to have a “pliable judiciary” ahead of parliamentary elections expected later this year. Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is widely expected to seek another five-year term as president from parliament this fall.
Recently, an open letter from Advocate Naeem Bokhari addressed to the Chief Justice and making a number of allegations against him – some personal – has been circulating on the internet extensively. Over the last week, I received probably two dozen emails with that letter in it (many from our readers, and one from my mother!). It seems to have created a stir. Many readers have been writing that we do a post on that letter. I had not done so, just because the letter was a little puzzling to me and its motivations were not clear. I wondered also if there were hints of personal rivalries or issues. On the other hand it was a well-written and seemingly sincere letter from a person of known integrity. In retrospect, the way the letter ended was prophetic:
My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel and say about you. My Lord, before a rebellion arises among your brother judges (as in the case of Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah), before the Bar stands up collectively and before the entire matter is placed before the Supreme Judicial Council, there may be time to change and make amends. I hope you have the wisdom and courage to make these amends and restore serenity, calm, compassion, patience and justice tempered with mercy to my Supreme Court. My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.
In all honesty, one has to wonder, however, whether it was that letter and other recent media focus on the Chief Justice that led to the removal of the Chief Justice, or whether these were merely instruments designed to prepare the way for this removal?
In either case, a removal of the Chief Justice in this way and for such reasons and at this time is a sad, sad development that will be one more blow to the hopes of the development of an independent judiciary in Pakistan.
Note: At various points we have reproduced, in our right-most column, cartoons from Daily Times (and here) and The News.
Correction in previous comment
… probably the best one *in* Pakistan …
Hey Omar Quraishi
Just a clarification on my earlier comments. My comment that you refered to earlier is related to “updates” on the 11th.
My other previous comment (@”Just read the The News, Interesting as there is not a single editorial or opinion in the 12th March The News which mentions or condemns the issue.”) mentions the editorial and opinion section on 12th.
Again, please don’t take it the wrong way The News is a great paper probably the best one is Pakistan, that is why as Aqil also mentioned your readers were expecting much more frequent updates on the issue.
And sorry for the way I bit off your head in my last comment.
asalaam o alikum!
well this is yet another event that shows the pervais musharafs intentions. whell if you people analyse the pervaiz ere you will see that he is a self centered person, he has been trying to tell the world and specially pakistani people that he is the only one right in this worlf and any one who doesnt like this is ripped of the sciene, look into history he first tryied to mis leed the pakistani people against the political parties of pakistan thenhe disturbed the people by pointing KALA BAGH DAM that he will make it he took the poor by increasing all time high the prices of the daily rutine accessories,then he took the police torn the police system then he took religious people and now he had taken the beeting to the juctice system.i believe he has plan to stay in power doesnt matter what it costs. may allah protect the islami republic of pakistan,i believe islami jamhoriya pakistan has faced many anti pakistani forces but i believe this one is the most powerful then ever faced!
Well…. whats a dictator for? To do what is to be done in favor of the country. Musharraf did the right thing for once. He needs to be firm against these corrupt people. If he had not done this, the opponents would have said “Musharraf has his own corrupt person as a CJP! He is an American Agent!”. Musharraf did the right thing. You kids have not even tasted the previous governments I guess. The level of corruption was insane! This regime may not be the best, but I know for sure its better than BB (Bayzameer), NSÂ or the Islamic Mullahs.
Omar:
1. I did read the editorial and opinion piece by Babar Sattar that you are referring to; I was commenting on today’s newspaper in which the editorial page indeed does not have anything. But I admit, I should have included the word ‘today’ to be precise, I apologize for that mistake.
2. I also called the Ansar Abbass story courageous, which means that I was actually praising your newspaper for it. In fact, I think that piece is probably more courageous than anything else on the story that I have read so far.
3. In light of the apology being repeatedly broadcast by Geo, I am naturally worried that your newspaper and TV channel may be facing harrassment, would you like people to stop being concerned about that?
4. On Kamran Khan’s show, I felt that more time was spent talking about technicalities, so I was just expressing my opinion, I don’t think that is such a blasfemy.
By the way, when I said something is fishy, I did not mean to be critical of Jang-group, my criticism was directed at the government. Being in Pakistan, and having just been forced to apologize by a court, it must be very hard, so being a bit guarded is only a sensible thing to do. However, your readers and viewers do need to point out when they think such a thing is happening so that there is more pressure on the govt to let you do your job more freely. But if you want to tell us that there is no pressure, than I would love to hear such positive news.